The Sankofa of Sustaining Agency: Race, Gender & Systemic Tensions in Black Family Early Literacy Codesign

• In Event: AERA Roundtable Session Thursday 4:15 pm
  In Roundtable Session: Critical Educational Research in the Asian Context

Abstract

The Early Literacy Collaborative (ELC) brought together families of 2nd–4th grade Black boys, educators, leaders, and researchers to co-design racially and culturally affirming literacy practices. Guided by sankofa—“it is not taboo to go back for what you forgot”—the project drew on Black ancestral and cultural knowledges to foster intergenerational learning, liberatory literacies, and racially equitable system. We examine the ELC efforts to sustain Black family-educator agency amid sociopolitical turbulence. Findings include: (1) Black family storying nurtured intergenerational learning and self-authoring futures; (2) tensions between technical-rational systems and place-based, culturally rooted Black family learning; and (3) the continuity of Black women’s leadership to sustain families’ transformative agency within broader educational and community ecosystems.

Authors

• Ann M. Ishimaru, University of Washington

• Sefanit Habtom, University of Washington

• Dana Gabrielle Nickson, University of Washington

• Dawit Endale Alemayehu, University of Washington

• Mia Williams, Seattle Public Schools